Rose Gold feeling Rosey!

Today I stepped out in my favorite rose gold jewelry piece! LOVE!! It dresses up any outfit and is simple to throw on. Keep it rosey! Xoxo-B

Starting Baby on Solids (4-6months)

Solids can be added to baby's diet anywhere from 4-6 months of age. Each baby is different, and their little bodies will decide when they are needing to start. Hunter was showing me signs he was ready at 5 months. He was so curious every time I was eating something! But he also started waking in the night, and that could be a sign that they are ready for something more.

MOMMY TIP: This BUMBO is amazing, we didn't even need a highchair until Hunter was 6 months, we just used the Bumbo! CLICK to find it! …and don't forget the snack tray :)

This is how we started.

Weeks 1-2

1 Teaspoon rice cereal mixed with formula or breast milk at morning feeding.

Increase to as much as baby wants up to 4-5 tablespoons in the coming weeks

The amount of liquid you add will depend on how soupy you want the rice cereal. The soupier the better for these beginners! Hunter loved the rice cereal. We are now doing 1 Tablespoon every morning.

Increase the frequency to 2-3 times a day AFTER bottle/breast feeding. To jump start the solids you can nurse one side (or offer half a bottle) then do solids, then finish nursing/the bottle after.

Weeks 2-4

Add in Yellow Vegetables (Squash and Carrots) ***try one vegi for 3 days before adding in another***

Start with Yellow vegetables, preferably at the noon/lunchtime feeding (this give you the rest of the day to look for allergic reaction signs: rash, vomiting, diarrhea)

Vegetables should be introduced before fruits, because fruits are so sweet, babies usually have a hard time taking vegetables if they try the sweet stuff first! Wouldn't you?

I started with one tablespoon of homemade, purred butternut squash and Hunter LOVED it! I also do purred carrots. (Steam squash (remove seeds & skin) and carrots in steam basket until soft, then puree with added purified water for consistency, freeze leftovers)

Increased to 2-3 tablespoons at two separate feedings for a week. Let baby determine the amount. At this point (between 4-6 months) it's more for fun  then nutritive.

Weeks 4-6

Add in Green Vegetables (Peas, and green beans)  ***try one vegi for 3 days before adding in another***

Weeks 6-8

Add in fruits, start by mixing purred fruit with cereal.  ***try one fruit for 3 days before adding in another***

Eventually baby's menu will look like this:

Breakfast: Cereal and Fruits

Lunch: Vegetables and fruits

Dinner: Cereal, vegetables and fruits. 

MOMMY TIP! We stopped spending nearly $2 a pouch on those already made pureed pouches. I bought THESE amazing reusable pouches and let me tell you, they are AMAZING! Ill have recipes coming soon :)

ALSO some must haves: 
These suction bowls, so your new eater won't throw the bowl ;) CLICK to view
& these are wonderful spoons for new eaters: CLICK HERE

Baby's day out!

Last week we decided to venture out of our house! We usually go out almost every day but that is mostly to run errands, grocery shop, swim class, etc. not just for fun so this was a real treat for me. We went to lunch at Pita jungle (YUM) and did a little shopping at Nordstrom Rack (YESSSS). 

Hunter had his lunch on the go. (He for some reason hates to be held when getting his bottle, I think he is so used to nursing that if he's being held he thinks it's to nurse, since we supplement at each feeding this is how he gets his bottle now a days). The restaurant was a lot for Hunter he's not used to all the loud noise.  One great thing about sleep training is they can sleep so well at home but he has a hard time sleeping public. 

Enter first public meltdown. 

The poor guy got so overwhelmed and overtired that he began to melt to down in the middle of the restaurant. Worse mom of the year! 

I took him outside and rocked him for about five minutes where he fell asleep. I was able to go inside and place him in his car seat where he finished out the remainder of his nap and I got to enjoy some lunch, so that was a nice gift.

He woke up 30 minutes later as usual and we headed up to Nordstrom rack. I got a killer leather skirt that's darling and got a cute long sleeve shirt for the little guy! We were only at Nordstrom rack for about half an hour and then decided to head home. He did well the rest of the trip and we made it home for his 4:00pm feeding. 

Lessons learned? Wait until after the baby has napped to go put in public so he does not have a meltdown and become overtired since he has such a hard time sleeping in public.

I was cracking up the other day when my husband saw a small baby sleeping in his mother's arms in public, he looked at me and said "what's wrong with that baby?" I said "what do you mean?" ..."why's that baby sleeping?" I laughed and explain to him that that's what most babies do when they are tired they close your eyes go to sleep! They usually don't have bad FOMO like our little guy! :) xoxo-B

Short Naps

Short naps, Oh my nemesis. Also referred to as catnaps: a nap shorter than one hour.

Hunter has been living in this cat nap world since he was about 10 weeks old. Now he is 20 weeks old and still cat napping.

Per babywise, he is put down 3-4 times a day after his awake playtime for what babywise recommends as a full nap of 1.5-2 hours long (psh I wish!) his morning nap's used to be this long and then got progressively shorter as the day went on. But over the last month this morning naps have shortened as well.

He would sleep about 45 minutes and then wake up usually crying. Now he's has been sleeping around 30 minutes waking up usually crying.

  WHY!?

Troubleshooting: what could cause that short naps?

1.) Feeding issue. Well I originally thought this was a feeding issue since Hunter had issues with my milk supply. So we started supplementing with formula. This helped him to get back to sleeping through the night but did not improve his naps.  Babywise Suggests that if that baby continually wakes up 30 to 45 minutes into his nap and to feed him right away because he must be hungry. I tried to feed him right away and put him back down but he was wide-awake and did not nurse very well so I obviously knew it was not a feeding issue  (also rule out a growth spurt)

2.) Room environment. Since he slept so well at night, I thought there might be something happening in his room during the day. So I put up an extra sheet over his blackout blinds to make it practically pitch black during the day. I made sure the temperature was the same as at night as well as the noise machine. Unfortunately this did not make a difference for Hunter.

3.) adjusting the time he goes down for nap. An easy fix is to put the baby down 15 minutes before you normally would for his nap. The thought is that this would prevent baby from getting overtired and that they would sleep longer. I adjusted his awake time back-and-forth a few times within a week span and it made no difference for Hunter.

4.) tummy troubles. Babies often times wake up in the middle of their naps crying because they have gas or possibly a delayed form of reflux. When Hunter wakes up at 30 minutes crying I go in there right away pick him up, and burp him. This has worked once or twice within the last couple weeks. He lets out a burp and then I rock him for a 1 to 2 minutes and put him back down.

5.)  baby's first feeding of the day has too much flexibility. I try to stay within a 30 minute window for Hunters first feeding of the day. Anything more than that in their schedule can be off causing their naps to be affected.

6.) sleep hours.  Each baby needs a certain amount of sleep hours a day to grow and be healthy. According to my pediatrician that's anywhere between 11 and 14 hours in a  24 hour period for his age. Hunter just began extending his sleep (when we cut out his dream feed) to 10 1/2 hours a night. which explains why his naps turned from 45 minutes to 30 minutes. He is very consistent about needing only about 12 to 12 1/2 hours of sleep a day.

So what conclusion did I come to? Since he is alert and happy when he is awake, that he is getting to sleep he needs even with the short catnaps. In a perfect world he would sleep longer maybe two naps an hour and a half each. BUT this is what is best for him right now since he cannot stay up for longer than two and half hours of time without getting tired.

I hope these factors help you in discovering what is causing your baby's short naps. Hang in there!! It's just a season and they grow soooo fast! Xoxo-B

Lovely Neighbor: Lipstick Heels and a Baby

Today's blogger crush and lovely neighbor is Jessica Fay from Lipstick, Heels, and a baby.

I cannot rave enough about this girl! She has darling style and GREAT tutorials on her blog (Check it out here!) she is expecting her second child so be sure to follow along as her cute fam grows!! Below are some of my favorites from her blog...enjoy! Xoxo-B